Rick and Morty that I Created for Gallery 1988’s first Official Rick and Morty Art Show in Los Angeles

Sketchbook phase first

I needed to understand what made these characters look like “them”. Learn the subtleties. I found that I needed to be careful with my line work and placement of the nose and eyes. Otherwise, they’ll start looking like a muppet. After a few episodes, I eventually I got the swing of things. It’s interesting that they make their pupils squiggly.

Then I collected reference photos from the show to get to know the color palette and wacky characters

My initial idea was to do a more illustrative piece, but even after a lot of process work, I decided against it. I love portrait work and that is what I sent the gallery when they accepted my portfolio.

And this is the finished portrait of Rick

I wanted to make sure I didn’t make Rick a nice guy. He is a selfish sarcastic old man who gets drunk all the time. I also really wanted to make sure he had a long face and hair that mimicked the same silhouette. And that uni-bro. I had to give it justice!

After finishing my Rick portrait, I thought, “Why not do a complimentary Morty piece?”

I started a Morty portrait but realized I didn’t want to rush it. Morty was a more difficult subject matter due to the fact that his character is made to be less interesting that Rick. Morty isn’t very smart and is below average in just about everything. His character is designed to look average. So it was a battle working out Morty’s face while still trying to make his portrait stand alone. How to put in interesting mark making while still trying to keep him looking young and still in the same world as my Rick portrait? In the end, I decided it was better to just send in “Rick” for the gallery show and finish Morty as a fan art piece for myself. I’m happy with it and glad I took my time. And here he is.